Awake!, October 22, 1967
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OCTOBER 22,1967
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CONTENTS
Living for "Kicks" That Kill 3
How to Avoid Drug Addiction 8
Autumn—the Year at Rich Maturity 13
Does It Pay to Own an Automobile? 17
How Churches Get Their Money 21
Hardworking Dogs of the Flock 25
"Your Word Is Truth"
Did Jehovah Foreknow that Adam
Would Sin? 27
Watching the World 29
TWO girls, one fourteen years old, the other fifteen, walked up to a total stranger in Greenwich Village, New York, and asked: "Hey, where can we cop some acid or pot?" The girls were inquiring about drugs. They were out seeking a thrill, a short "trip out of this world," a "holiday from reality" by means of drugs. This may sound harmless to some, but the fact is that just one experimental use of drugs can ruin their lives, even kill them.
Young people today are in search of excitement, "instant" happiness. They are being told that they ought to get "fun" out of life, and the less real fun there seems to be, the greater their search and rush to fill the vacuum with the deceptive pleasures of the forbidden and the dangerous. "It was like we were doing something wrong that was fun—like eating
candy before breakfast," explained an addict. But it is not at all that innocent.
You young people may hear other youths argue that the use of drugs is merely "harmless fooling around and a sign of healthy curiosity." But there is nothing "harmless" about it, and curiosity, improperly channeled, can wreck your lives.
This is what happened to a blond girl, no more than fourteen years old. The police found her lying on a filth-strewn floor. Her eyes were blank and her fingers clawed at the figures in the design of the linoleum. She was living with a middle-aged man. Just eight months before, the girl had been a normal, healthy high-school freshman from a "good" family—until a schoolmate introduced her to drugs. Now she was on the floor trembling violently.
On the dresser were hundreds of white pills. "That kid's been taking about thirty of these a day," a policeman said. "We call them whites, bennies. If you looked the words up in a drug catalog you would find them listed under amphetamines—those nice, respectable diet and wake-up pills."
Commissioner George P. Larrick of the United States Food and Drug Administration says: "Nearly ten billion barbiturate and amphetamine pills and capsules are produced each year by the pharmaceutical manufacturers. Half of these—or five billion pills and capsules—are being diverted into unauthorized channels." Sergeant Eugene Zappey of the Juvenile Narcotics Squad of the Los Angeles Police Department stated that "pills have replaced marijuana as the steppingstone to hard narcotics addiction. Five years ago, eighty percent of our problem with kids was marijuana. Now it's close to eighty percent pills."
The use of drugs in America is fast becoming as common and popular as chewing gum, big cars and television. It is not only adults who are involved. New York police records show that arrests occur even in the seven- to fifteen-year-old agegroup for the use of amphetamines and barbiturates—drugs that not only are themselves dangerous but can lead to narcotic addiction, crime and death. Another New York City report stated that between 1963 and 1964 there was "a 75 percent increase in the number of children under 16 years of age taken into custody for criminal offenses who were admitted narcotics users; a 95 percent increase in arrests for violation of the narcotics law by young people from 16 to 20 years old."
"Pep Pills" and "Goofballs"
How bad are amphetamines, called "pep pills," and barbiturates, known as
"goofballs"? Misuse of these pills leads to irrational and even violent behavior. A thirteen-year-old boy started on pills when a schoolmate handed them to him. "Man," he said, "when you're on them you feel like you're about the baddest person walking and you'd do anything." He and his partner set out to prove their point. They stole cars, held up stores, attacked innocent bystanders with pop bottles, blackjacks and other weapons. "I was popping those pills in me like they were going out of style," the one boy said. Then there were murders—cruel, vicious murders. The boys were apprehended in Georgia and tried. Both died in the electric chair. The pills thrilled them, but also killed them.
In Houston, Texas, after swallowing several amphetamine tablets, a man shot and killed a schoolteacher, assaulted a fourteen-year-old farm girl and committed two robberies. In Illinois a truck driver suddenly went berserk after he had taken several pills to keep himself awake. He tried to run down pedestrians with his truck. In Chicago three boys, two of them only sixteen years old, the other seventeen, sat around taking "goofoballs." Then, with a rifle, they went out into the street and calmly shot the first person they saw. They shot the man nineteen times! When the effects of the drugs wore off, one of the boys admitted the murder, saying: "It was the pills that caused me to do the shooting." These drugs are really dangerous, and parents and youths should know the extent of their danger.
Living for Kicks with LSD
Yes, many young persons today are toying with "incendiary pill bombs" that can ruin them or kill them. LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) has become part of this generation's illicit pleasure. Living for kicks with LSD ruined four college students who gazed at the sun while under the influence of LSD and lost their reading vision completely and permanently.
One of the students explained that he stared at the sun because he was "holding a religious conversation" with it. A twenty-year-old youth stripped and jumped to his death from a roof under the LSD-induced belief that he could fly. Another under LSD influence blew his brains out with a revolver while playing "Russian roulette."
Early in 1967, a tall, husky, handsome nineteen-year-old student was out seeking a thrill. On April 23, 1967, he was ordered committed to a mental institution to protect him from what doctors said were the aftereffects of experiments with the drug LSD. Investigators said that the boy, unable to stand the hallucinations he suffered—even after the drug should have worn off—tried to gouge out his eyes and kill himself. His mother said: "It was as if there was something inside telling him this is what he was supposed to do. It was as if there were demons in him."
She told newsmen that her son first tried to kill himself with a razor blade. Then at the General Hospital "he broke a glass, ripped his other arm and his
throat. Then, later, he took a pencil and tried to stab himself. Two orderlies grabbed him. But he broke loose and ran and tried to ram his head against a wall and break his neck. Then he tried to poke out his eyes with his fingers," she said.
His mother revealed that he was a member of a crowd in which, although she did not realize it, just about everyone was trying LSD, pep pills and marijuana. "I must have been living a cloistered life," she said. "Now I find that just about every party
for young people this age seems to have half the people on one side of the room taking what they call a trip on LSD, and the other half on the other side, smoking pot"—marijuana.
Parents, are you leading a "cloistered" life? Are you aware of what your children are doing for entertainment, who their associates are? Do you know what they think of narcotics? Have you cared enough to find out?
Injury to the Unborn
If you are ever tempted by the thought of trying LSD, consider also these facts, reported in Time magazine of August 11, 1967: "Not only does [LSD] break down the chromosomes in some blood cells. The latest evidence is that it causes cell changes suspiciously like those seen in one form of leukemia. Given to a rat early in pregnancy, it usually results in stillborn or malformed young. Worse, LSD may have similar effects on the human fetus. And those chromosome breaks have been found in the babies of LSD users."
Chromosomes are those minute components of body cells that transmit heredity factors such as eye and hair color, as well as physical and personality characteristics,
RECENT NEWS REPORTS
Seven-year-old addicts
Teen-age boy sniffs glue—repes and murders two girls
Twenty-seven high school youths seized at marijuana party during school lunch break
10,000 teen-agers in London using dope
Woman, 24, sets self on fire, dies. LSD blamed
Five teen-age Japanese boys found dead from sniffing lacquer thinner
800 addicted babies born to drug addict mothers
Thirteen-year-old dies from narcotics commission
24-year-old man with honor degree in law drills hole in his skull under influence of LSD
arrests for illegal use of marijuana
Parents react with shocked surprise to report about their children by narcotics squad
from one generation to another.
What may happen if parents have broken chromosomes? Malformed babies, for one thing. The babies may be mentally retarded, have distorted features and inefficient muscles. Doctors say that in some cases the babies may even cry like a cat rather than a human. Thus the use of LSD can also damage the lives of the unborn.
Getting "Hooked"
How do youngsters, teen-agers and young adults get started on drugs? It is frightfully easy, almost too easy to believe. The majority have been challenged into trying a hallucinatory drug by "friends." Many started because of curiosity or a desire to be "in" with their crowd. Some have gone to "pot parties," where small groups of young people smoked marijuana, and have been enticed to join them. One thing leads to another. Experimental use of marijuana often leads to trying stronger drugs. They are forever searching for new "highs," and before they know it they are "hooked"—addicted.
Once is often enough to start the drug habit. "I got this awful toothache and Johnny gave me a shot," said a young female addict, "and it took the pain away, and it also took my fear of drugs away. I started doing it myself. And I had a habit before I knew it . . . It made me very relaxed, very high. I liked it. Nothing fazes you. You could hear about your mother dying an excruciating death and you wouldn't even shed a tear." This young girl turned to prostitution to maintain her drug habit, as almost all female addicts do.
then I just popped it in. I thought it might give me a better idea of myself, like what I'm all about, what I'm here for." The drug turned him into an addict and a thief.
A sixteen-year-old high-school student said: "I had this cube that somebody gave me. I was carrying it around for three weeks wondering if I should try it and
Another youth stated: "I heard so much about it, that you could see all the wonders of the world right in your own mind, I figured I had to try it." He did. His curiosity got the better of him. This seventeen-year-old boy has never been normal since.
"I took marijuana on a dare," said a twelve-year-old lad. "Somebody told me I wouldn't be able to take it, that I was too unstable. I took it." A dare turned him into a drug addict.
A girl of seventeen said that "pot" (marijuana) made her "feel superior." "You take the pot and you find you can join in, and everyone thinks you're a great success." Now she is under a doctor's care, being treated for gonorrhea. Dr. Nathan S. Kline of New York's Rockland State Hospital said: "Under drugs like marijuana you tend to feel that you love everyone and the world is a great place. And if anyone wants to go to bed with you, it's just one more great experience to share." Therefore, pregnancy and venereal disease become frequent serious side effects of marijuana.
Glue-sniffing sounded like a lot of fun to a sixteen-year-old girl. The next thing she knew she was in a hospital. "I know I never should have started on glue," she said, "but the other kids were doing it and it sounded like fun. At first, I sniffed just occasionally for kicks. Then pretty soon I couldn't stay away from it."
These young folks cannot seem to get it through their heads that drugs are "dynamite." They destroy people. When 1,000 youngsters were medically examined for aftereffects of glue-sniffing, tests showed liver, kidney and lung damage, and abnormalities of the blood that often lead to anemia and death.
Excessive marijuana smoking can produce brain and lung damage. Records show that one out of three who start on "soft" drugs, such as glue and marijuana, will in time use even more harmful drugs, and that over 35 percent of these who start will become addicted. Only about 2 percent who go into addiction manage to get themselves out of the pernicious habit. The other 98 percent? Their lives are smashed and wasted.
Parents, think seriously. What are you doing now to safeguard your child against drug addiction? What are you doing to help him cope with the temptations, the curiosities he may have about drugs? How are you aiding him to face "dares," his own loneliness and anxieties? Surely the best drug "cure" lies in prevention, and preventive education must begin at home with the parents. The present growing popularity of drugs among youths and adults demands that you inform your child about the dangers of drugs immediately. The situation is that urgent.
Gaining in Popularity
Drug users used to be almost always linked with rootless, friendless children of the poor, children of broken homes with no rules to live by and no goals but "kicks." But not so anymore. Drugs have found a prominent place among "respectable" suburban brick homes along clean, tree-lined streets. More and more marijuana is present at parties. "It's a social gesture to offer friends marijuana like offering them a drink," said a well-groomed young man. "The boys and girls think they have to become hip to be accepted socially and the way to become hip is to use narcotics," said an acting New York police chief. It is becoming increasingly popular to become "high" on marijuana as a natural conclusion to a dinner party.
College students have also joined the drug parade. Among them smoking marijuana has become the "in" thing, the "cool" thing to do. They say it is a way of "finding out more about life." Most college students are interested in mind effects. So to them marijuana is "the ideal high." "We are living in an era of sensate culture," said a student, "a time of gorging the senses and ignoring reality." Remarked another: "Experimentation is a part of the college experience. We need mental stimulants to heighten our awareness." In 1965 a study of students at Oxford University revealed that 200 undergraduates were taking drugs every day and 1,000 others were doing it whenever they could get them. In America, student users estimate that up to 30 percent of the undergraduates now use marijuana.
Martin Gold, president of the Cornell University senior class, gives another, darker reason for what he estimates as a 600-percent increase in the use of marijuana since he registered at Ithaca. "At a university, where intellectualism is paramount," he said, "there is the feeling that there is no meaning to life, no God, and that all the works of man will have no meaning when life is done." Thus students turn to drugs, Gold believes, to ease or eliminate the pain of living in a spiritual vacuum. In other words, this materialistic world, this 'world without God,' is in effect a dream world from which its very builders and youthful supporters are escaping by whatever means possible, even by drugs.
You young people, is this the life you want, an escape from reality into a drug-concocted dream world? What do addicts themselves think of their life? It is like "a revolving door," they say. They feel trapped by their craving for drugs. To get them they steal, soon find themselves in jail, in a hospital, and thus start the degraded cycle over again.
"We are animals," said a young female addict. "We are all animals in a world no one knows. We'll step on one another for a shot if there's no dope. I'm no different from any of the others. I'll beat somebody for their money just as fast as look at them. That's why I say we're animals." Is this the life you want?
Some young persons try to justify their use of drugs because of the difficult times in which we are living. That these are critical times, there is no doubt. We are living in the death throes of an old system of things. Nearly everyone today needs help outside of himself to face the critical times in which we live. And youths are no exception. But there are other and better ways to get help than by means of pills or marijuana.
Use of narcotics appears to be an easy way out, but it leads only to greater frustration, an empty life and an ugly death.
It may be more work to find positive ways of dealing with the frustrations and the anxieties of life, but the hard ways are by far more rewarding to the mind and body than drugs. Such positive sources of strength are true religious faith and a deep relationship with other people, primarily people with faith in God. But, as a safeguard, youths and adults also need to see the dangers of drugs and the utter futility of addiction as a way of life.
What are you parents doing to offset the subtle, disarming arguments hurled against young minds that must venture into a world that has thrown away all moral responsibility and restraint? How are you fortifying your child spiritually so that he will not give in to his own weakness, his own desire to please and to be one of the crowd? This is your responsibility as parents. Now is the time to help your children to walk uprightly in decency and dignity before God and men by safeguarding them against drug addiction.
"WHY waste money in trying to treat addicts, because they are, for all practical purposes, dead?" so said a New York building inspector at a luncheon in the Towers Hotel in Brooklyn on June 1, 1967. He had just listened to a discourse delivered by the chairman of the New York State Addiction Control Commission, Lawrence W. Pierce. But the inspector's views were different from those of the
commission chairman. "You should help the poor, not wait until they become addicts," he said, "because then they are as good as dead."
Commissioner Pierce replied: "We reject the notion that an addict is dead. We regard him as a human being, with a potential."
Just then a well-dressed young man rose from his seat and said, "I'm one of the dead that the inspector spoke about. I've been back alive nine years. And we have 25 other 'dead' people who will be taking civil service examinations tomorrow."
This one voice in behalf of the "dead" raised the hopes of the social workers and community leaders at the luncheon that perhaps there is a way out of this drug impasse.
Cures, however, are admittedly rare. And as Commissioner Pierce himself admitted, nothing as yet has been found that can assure a cure for every drug addict who seeks it, or even for a majority.
No Absolute Medical Cure
When a student at Rye High School in New York asked: "How do you stop taking drugs?" he was told that one must "go to a hospital." But is it as simple as that? No, by no means. "I was on junk [heroin] for almost fifteen years," writes a male drug addict. "In that time I took ten cures. I have been to Lexington [hospital] and have taken the reduction treatment. I have taken abrupt withdrawal treatments and prolonged withdrawal treatments; cortisone, tranquilizers, antihistamines and the prolonged sleep cure. In every case I relapsed at the first opportunity." Hospitals were no help to him. What assurance does anyone have that hospitals will cure the drug addict? There is no assurance.
Some addicts have taken methadone, which is an opiate stronger than morphine and quite as addictive, in an effort to stop the habit. Others have been treated by apomorphine. But the fact remains that about 90 percent of those treated at the United States Public Health Service Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, sooner or later revert to drugs. This means that official agencies have failed to solve the narcotic's problem. Nonofficial agencies have done little better. The cure, therefore, is not simply the going to a hospital, and no young person should think so.
There is no guarantee of a medical cure for drug addiction. Realizing this and how serious it is, is one of the first steps in avoiding drug addiction. Truly, the way to avoid drug addiction is never to start taking drugs. That is the safe and sure way of protecting yourself from addiction.
Watch Your Associations
In this age of pill takers and thrill seekers, avoiding drug addiction may not be as easy as it might appear. The Bible, however, wisely advises: 'Watch your associations.' (1 Cor. 15:33) To avoid drug addiction this warning must never, yes, never go unheeded. Narcotic authorities are convinced that most users of illicit narcotics acquired their habits through association with the dope-ridden criminal element. A drug addict admitted: "Many junkies infect other people. Because you don't like to feel different all the time, beyond the pale. So you try to turn somebody else on." And to give in to their wishes only once may be enough to destroy you. Therefore, shun the company of drug addicts, for it may mean your very life!
The best way to shun bad associations is by cultivating good, clean companionships, especially the associations of people who love Jehovah God. The apostle Paul advised the young man Timothy: "Flee from the desires incidental to youth, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, along with those who call upon the Lord out of a clean heart." (2 Tim. 2:22) This means you must set your moral standards high and associate with people who will help you to maintain high Christian principles.
Control Curiosity
Another rule to bear in mind is this: Do not let curiosity get the better of you. The Bible again wisely admonishes that Christians be "babes as to badness" and that they practice "self-control."
(1 Cor. 14:20; 2 Pet. 1:6) Control your curiosity about drugs and the addicts' corrupt way of life. Do not lower your Christian standard for anyone, not even in your thoughts.—2 Cor. 10:5.
Do not allow yourself to be tempted into doing what is wrong. Know that you gain absolutely nothing and can lose everything, even your life, by taking a single dose of drugs. To avoid addiction, control your curiosity.
Flee from Their Dares and Enticements
Still another rule to remember is, Do not allow yourself to be "dared" into taking drugs. Let them call you "chicken." They are the weak ones, for they are enslaved to their relentless cravings and to their corrupting habit.
Further, do not tarry in the presence of addicts or listen to their arguments for taking drugs. Know that their subtle, wicked reasonings may weaken your will to resist. They may argue that drugs are less harmful than whiskey. One may conclude, "O well, this once won't kill me." Yet once may be all that is necessary to set one in a way that leads to thievery, muggings, prostitution, disease, murder, hospitals, prisons. Is that what you want? If not, do not listen to an addict. Get away from him.
Parental Supervision Needed
Where young people are not addicted to any drug, but may be toying with the idea, the parents can do much to help such youths by teaching them the dangers of drug addiction. Be sure they read this issue of Awake! or, better still, read it to them so that you will be sure that they get the points. Tell children the truth, the terrifying consequences of drug addiction, of the ever-present possibility
of opening the mind to demon obsession, the risk of losing God's favor and life.
These young people need firm parental supervision. Insist on knowing who their companions are, what they think about drugs, and also about their moral habits.
Daily assure your children of your love and concern for them. Spend time with them, doing things as a family unit. Surprise them by taking them to places from time to time. Initiate programs for them that are creative. Also, couple this recreation and play with Bible education. Cultivate in them a close relationship so that they will feel free to confide in you and trust you. By your associating with them in this manner they will learn morality, decency, respect for God and man, and the wisdom of living according to Bible principles. It is your loving concern for them that will prove a deterrent and a safeguard in times of temptation and trial.
But where children are already addicted to drugs, this fact also must be faced realistically. Recognize that the situation is a serious one and that the youth's fight back to a normal life will be a hard uphill climb and that he will need all the help that he can possibly get. There may be many relapses; there usually are, before any sign of success may appear. It may be necessary, in some cases, to commit the youth to a hospital for a while. But the hospital will not fight all his battles. After he is released, he will still have to make his life over. He will need a lot of help to get a firm grip on the principles of right thinking and wholesome conduct.
What will help him now is the same thing that could have safeguarded him against addiction in the first place. What is that?
A Living Hope
There is the need of giving youths a hope, a reason for living, a reason for remaining moral.
Many youths think this can be found by escaping into their chemical-born dream world. Not so. Addiction only compounds their difficulties. They need to face up to the fact that God made man, and that if they are ever going to understand the real reason for living they have to turn to his Word and conform their lives to it. They must do as the Christian apostle Paul counseled: "Quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Rom. 12:2) Doing the perfect will of God is the all-satisfying reason for living.
When persons learn that God's kingdom is a real government created for the purpose of blessing mankind, and that they can serve that government here on earth, that realization gives them reason to live, to be morally clean and loyal. (Matt. 6:9, 10; Dan. 2:44; 1 Cor. 6:9, 10) It introduces them to a moral society, to clean associates dedicated to doing the will of God. It provides them with transforming power, a reason to make anew their personalities in a new way of life. They learn that there is satisfying, purposeful work for them to do in helping others to learn and do the will of God. —Col. 3:1-14.
But does this really help? Is it just theory, or is it fact? Listen to a young man in his twenties who, in his own words, used to take "marijuana, amphetamines, barbiturates, the works," and who in July 1967 had this to say: "I was an altar boy for six years. When I was fourteen, I started to take dope. As a Roman Catholic I thought I knew my religion, but I never believed in such a thing as absolute truth. One day one of Jehovah's witnesses showed me in the Bible the cause of death, that hell was the grave, God's purpose for
a paradise earth. I saw where Jesus had brothers. This amazed me. I was fascinated with Bible truth. I couldn't get enough.
"At first I was very, very nervous—shifty eyes—the works. But Jehovah's witnesses were very kind. They always included me in their activities. As time went on they saw that the Word of God, the things I was learning from the Bible, was having a desired effect on me. I knew I must break up all bad habits, not only marijuana but also cigarettes. One day I pulled a pack of cigarettes out of my shirt pocket and threw it away, and that was that as far as cigarettes were concerned.
"I have always enjoyed clear thinking. This was the way to get more enjoyment out of life. Studying the Bible regularly and learning about the Kingdom, how it will rid the earth of all wickedness, resurrect the dead, do away with poverty, sorrow and death was rewarding—inspiring! It gave me a clean conscience. It gave me an unusually wonderful feeling. In two months I progressed to a point where I was baptized. On October 5, 1957, I became one of Jehovah's witnesses." Now he detests the very idea of drug addiction.
Make no mistake about it; it was not easy. There were times when he got depressed, but application of Bible principles helped to pull him through. He says: "The ones that helped me draw myself away from narcotics were Jehovah's witnesses, the people who taught me the Bible. I was seeking the 'happy life,' but it had its bad side effects. I knew that drugs eventually lead to crime and disease, and I didn't like it. I didn't like where it was leading me. Then when I met Jehovah's witnesses, that did it. I drove this Witness to one of their assemblies. I dropped her off. She asked me to stay, but I couldn't. But I saw people, colored and white people, mingling together.
They were happy. This was the first time that I saw genuinely happy people in association together.
"When I was in company of drug addicts, I was always afraid of them. I feared them. They would steal from you, turn you in to the police, cut your throat for nothing. But when I was among the Witnesses, I felt that I could trust them. I immediately stopped associating with the addicts. In fact, the Witnesses told me I had better do so for my own protection. A Witness invited me to his home. He helped me to get away from the association of addicts. For a couple of weeks I went over to his place every night as soon as he came home from work. We talked the Bible until midnight and later. I grew afraid of the addicts. It was like swimming in the ocean; after getting out you see that the water was filled with sharks. A fear comes over you when you realize how close to destruction you were. This was the feeling that came over me.
"There were times when I got depressed, when I felt as if the walls were caving in on me. I'd go for a phenobarbital, a pill, anything. Then I would catch myself. I knew that this was no way to combat my depressions. I would call up the brothers [Jehovah's witnesses] and they would come over or invite me over. After a while the desire left completely. I really don't get it anymore."
How wise the inspired counsel of the Bible: "Two are better than one . . . For if one of them should fall, the other one can raise his partner up. But how will it be with just the one who falls when there is not another to raise him up? . . . And if somebody could overpower one alone, two together could make a stand against him. And a threefold cord cannot quickly be torn in two"! (Eccl. 4:9-12) This principle highlights the wisdom of good, clean
associations. Accept this inspired counsel. Appreciate the need for wholesome Christian association. The moral and spiritual strength from such association will pick you up and be a protection to you. You will be in an immeasurably better position to avoid drug addiction.
Power to Change Lives
The power of true Christianity, therefore, protects persons by building secure, mature, new personalities that do not need to be propped up with drugs or any other chemical crutch. It aids them to put away their former course of conduct that was being corrupted according to its deceptive desires. These ones are made new in the force actuating their minds. This helps them to put away falsehood, to speak truth, to avoid drug addiction, to live upright lives to the glory of God. Notice how the apostle Paul verifies this truth. After mentioning adulterers, thieves, greedy persons, drunkards and other unseemly personalities, he says: "Yet that is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean, but you have been sanctified, but you have been declared righteous in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the spirit of our God." (1 Cor. 6:9-11; Eph. 4:17-32) The power of true Christianity changed them and its power has changed the lives of drug addicts as well in these modern times.
Do not underestimate the power of God's Word. (Heb. 4:12) If it can change one, it can change others. "With God all things are possible," said Jesus. (Matt. 19:26) A study of God's Word in association with Jehovah's witnesses can help you to avoid drug addiction, by filling you with a living hope, the hope of living under God's perfect government, his kingdom. So ask yourself: Is one superficial, questionable thrill, one "kick" from drugs worth losing the hope of living forever?
Is it worth corrupting oneself into a prostitute or a thief or a murderer? Is it worth exposing oneself to demon possession, to prolonged depressions, epileptic convulsions, to hepatitis, venereal disease, to
brain, liver or kidney damage? Is it worth wrecking one's mind, becoming a mental patient or a prisoner for life? Nothing is worth that price! Your being convinced of that fact will prove to be a priceless protection for you in these critical times.
IN THE stillness of an October or a November evening up north come the distant sounds of honking geese and quacking ducks, the thrilling sights and sounds of birds flying southward in "V" formations. As the golden rays of the autumn sun begin to fall at more of a slant, casting an amber light across fields where corn has been hulled, there is the call of the pheasant and the flutter of wings. The marshes and lakes are suddenly covered with thousands of birds resting and feeding between flights, as they prepare to resume their journey toward warmer regions. The hoot of an owl and the bark of a fox can be heard in the distance. With the passing of evening's golden haze, the night becomes cool and there is a touch of frost in the air. A wondrous change is about to take place over the northern half of the earth.
Since earliest times the sounds and sights of autumn have awed man. He has
marveled at the enormous transformation that suddenly surrounds him. Much of creation unfolds in resplendent beauty. Plants, insects, birds, fish and mammals seem to be working feverishly in rhythmic harmony with the earth, preparing for the coming winter.
For each creature autumn has a special meaning. To man, especially in rural areas, it is harvesttime. The squirrels, the deer and the wild turkeys enjoy the drop of acorns and beechnuts, the eating of windfalls in the orchards. The woodchuck makes last-minute preparations for his long winter nap.
In the countryside autumn is the time for tasting fresh honey from the honeycomb, when apple cider is at its very best. It is when the mow in the barn is filled to bursting, when jam closets and cold pantries are stocked with the year's goodness.
It is a time of rejoicing, as when the ancient Israelites rejoiced before Jehovah their God at harvesttimes. It is a time when appreciative ones cry out to God, as did the psalmist: "You have crowned the year with your goodness." —Ps. 65:11.
This is the time of the year when a blanket covering during the night feels good. But the cold does not come to stay. Days are warm with a fresh autumn tang. Vociferous crickets, katydids and grasshoppers form the season's symphony orchestra. With remarkable regularity they produce loud chirps, about 160 of them a minute. It is said that if you count their calls for 15 seconds and add 40, you will have the approximate temperature! Also, the insect's warmth can be estimated according to the musical scale. At 70 degrees F. he calls in F sharp below middle C. At 86 degrees the cricket's excitement rises to middle C itself. As the temperature drops the chirps get farther and farther apart until they stop entirely toward the late night hours.
Even though the sky is cloudless and decked in azure blue, yet the plants are busy readying themselves for the bleak winter days ahead. All but the evergreens have ceased to carry water to leaves and buds. The leaves and frailer stems shine suddenly with a beauty that defies description. The magnificence of the woodlands, the spectacle of leaves, where color changes day by day, make one stand in wonder at the creation of God. "Do give ear to this, O Job," said the young man Elihu to the ancient prophet. "Stand still and show yourself attentive to the wonderful works of God." (Job 37:14) The impact of these words can be specially appreciated when one is surrounded by autumn's wonders.
Creation's Festival Dress
Only three large regions in the world are affected by autumn coloration. This is a feature unique to temperate, deciduous forests. The color display is particularly well developed along the slopes of the Alps and in the Rhine and Danube valleys and parts of the British Isles. Eastern China, portions of Japan and North America are the other regions where autumn color is to be found in all its dramatic glory. Elsewhere only limited areas present displays of autumn color.
In the northern hemisphere patches of pure-gold aspen appear in a crazy-quilt fashion against the dark-green backdrop of spruce, fir, hemlock or pine. Perhaps, the maple tree, in the zenith of its coloration, is—more than all other trees combined—the crowning glory of autumn. Henry David Thoreau, American naturalist and essayist, wrote of the maple: "How beautiful, when a whole tree is like one great scarlet fruit full of ripe juices, every leaf, from lowest limb to topmost spire, all aglow, especially if you look toward the sun! What more remarkable object can there be in the landscape? Visible for miles, too fair to be believed." Little wonder, autumn has been likened to a happy woman in festival dress.
Close to earth wild asters, goldenrods and gentians are in bloom. The larch glows like a great cone of golden feathers and the lemon-yellow flowers of witch hazel are set off against the deep background of the evergreen. Leaves of other trees have changed to brilliant crimson, russet and gold.
In small villages where huge maple trees have lined the streets, there are the exciting sounds of children raking and the smell of burning leaves. There may be other times as good as late autumn to go hiking, but for many there is not a better one. To walk with the scuffle of newfallen leaves, to feel the mild sun, to have the company of busy squirrels and restless ducks on the river is to know the marvel of autumn, a wonder of God.
It is to know, perhaps, in a small way how the psalmist felt when he uttered the words: "How many your works are, O Jehovah! All of them in wisdom you have made. The earth is full of your productions."—Ps. 104:24.
Busy Little Creatures
Down in woodland's paths insects hurry along. Furry caterpillars ripple quickly over plants and leaves. Many have finished feeding and have found themselves a place in which to transform into a moth or butterfly. But not so the drowsy bear. He has been laying in fuel, in the form of the thick layer of fat, for nourishment and warmth in the cold days ahead. For a topcoat, he has put on a fine new woolly pelt. Unlike the caterpillar, he will still be a bear in the spring, only very hungry.
The groundhog is fat. His coat is sleek and wavy as he moves. He has put on three and a half pounds since spring, and he now weighs about ten pounds. This fat is his winter store of food. He will not even have to reach for his dinner while he hibernates, snug and dry, deep in his underground apartment. He is ready now for a long winter snooze.
The chipmunk, too, has been eating well all summer. During the warm summer days he has been enlarging his subterranean rooms and passageways, particularly the bedroom. Hard work went into repairing his home with an extra lining of warm leaves and patching the weak spots. For several weeks now he has pressed hard seeds under the matting of his bed of fine twigs. This will be his winter food supply. His cheek pouches bulging with food for storage make the chipmunk look as if he had the mumps. All his spare
rooms are packed with goodies. Excitedly he raises himself on his hind legs and triumphantly voices a series of sharp chirping calls, as if to say, 'Another frost and off to bed I'll go and you won't be seeing me again until next spring!'
Season for Moving
The nip in the autumn air warns the human population to look to the fuel supply, check the furnace and get the topcoats out of mothballs. Some people make preparations for a "flight" south to avoid the rigors of the coming winter. They board up their summer homes and head down the highways toward their winter homes. And there are birds, fish and mammals that do the very same thing.
The heavily antlered North American elk and Canada's caribou, sniffing the first tang of snow in the high mountain air, sedately gather under the trees and file down from high mountain passes in small bands as the snow creeps down from white peaks. From the free windswept tundra of Canada, herds of caribou head south along their regular routes, crossing turbulent streams, rocky ridges and other obstacles in their 400- to 500-mile trek to the lower ranges and warmer valleys.
The rare white polar bear, weighing close to 1,200 pounds, begins his journey across the ice caps of the polar regions southward in pursuit of his meal—the seal. In the Bering Sea, mother and baby seals slide off volcanic islands and head down the Pacific coast. The female Alaska fur seal swims with her pups some 3,000 or more miles from the cool breeding grounds of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea to south of California.
Seventy-ton whales also silently slip their bulk through Arctic waters and head toward tropical destinations. Each year the humpback whale swims from East Africa and Malagasy to the Antarctic continent and back again, a distance of some 4,000 miles.
Other sea creatures that migrate with the change of seasons include the delicious tuna that travel from the waters of Iceland to Africa, and smaller fish, such as mackerel, sardine, cod, whiting and haddock. Even the blue crabs of Chesapeake Bay move a few miles up and down the placid inland waters each season. Each of these creatures behaves as if someone had told them when to move and where to go. Man cannot help but marvel at this.
Air Travelers
Birds are the most famous of all autumn travelers. The gray Arctic tern flies a total distance of about 22,000 miles each year. This bird nests above the Arctic Circle in the summer, then flies south to spend the winter below the Antarctic Circle, returning to its Arctic home for the next summer. The great shearwater ranges the entire Atlantic Ocean. Yet in the fall these birds return to the islands of Tristan da Cunha, mere specks in a giant ocean, a navigational feat that is a challenge to man with all his modern scientific instruments.
The barn swallow abandons his home in the northern part of America and flies over the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea to spend the winter in South America. Ruby-throated hummingbirds too excite wonder and admiration by their autumn flights. These tiny birds, barely three inches in length, regularly fly across the Gulf of Mexico, from the United States coast to Yucatan, on their way south. This is a flight of 500 miles across an open ocean for those little wings.
In Canada, fragile butterflies with their tiny wings quivering gather in thick clusters. On just the right breeze they rise and drift southward. The black monarch butterfly is known to cross thousands of
miles, even oceans. Divinely provided instinct warns the butterflies of winter's approach. It guides them over trackless oceans and land and causes them to stop on the same "butterfly trees" that their foreparents used year after year.
In the south of France, a family of wasps wing their way up to an elevation of 6,000 feet and there cluster for the winter under stones in a sort of cold-storage vault that keeps them inactive until spring. High In the Rocky Mountains of the United States, the bright-red ladybugs spend the winter under clumps of earth. Bats spurn the dark, moist caves and zigzag hundreds of miles south when autumn begins to tint the woods with gold and red. Species of the hoary and red bats are known to fly the 2,500 miles across the Pacific Ocean from the United States to Hawaii. What strength in those wings!
Autumn is no chemical accident. To man who finds pleasure in the wonderful works of God it is an inspirational uplift. Autumn has a way of reaffirming that "seed sowing and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, will never cease." (Gen. 8:22) The furry bear, lying asleep beneath a blanket of leaves will arise come spring. The mantis eggs, carefully covered on the branch, will hatch. Some of the acorns that the squirrels planted will sprout. The parasols of the seeding dandelion that floated to earth will soon be having tiny parachute seedlings of their own.
If man needs reassurance of the providence of God, he can find it on every hand by walking appreciatively through autumn's blazing wonderlands. For at this time the words of the Psalm (145:15, 16) take on new meaning: "To you [O Jehovah] the eyes of all look hopefully, and you are giving them their food in its season. You are opening your hand and satisfying the desire of every living thing."
EACH year more and more people own automobiles. In the United States alone about 80 percent of all families now own one. Throughout the world passenger-car registra-
uary 1, 1966, totaled over 137 million vehicles. And automobiles are now being produced at the rate of nearly twenty million a year world wide.
From this it would seem that owning a
car is the accepted and necessary thing. Also, advertising helps to create the impression that nearly everyone should and can own an automobile. However, what is not presented in the enticing advertisements about automobile ownership is the other side of the picture: Does it really pay to own an automobile?
In many countries, of course, the question of owning an automobile does not arise, for the average person in most parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America walks, rides a bicycle, or takes public transportation. Automobile ownership is completely out of the question for them because of their very low income. But for many families in Europe, North America, and a few other countries, it is a real and pressing question. For some persons in the more industrialized nations of the world automobile ownership is a necessity in the present arrangement of things. Their work requires it. For such persons, the question of ownership must be answered in the affirmative, because in those countries they would have difficulty doing
their line of work without one. In rural areas of these nations it is often a great convenience, and frequently practical, to have a car in order to transact business and buy supplies in town.
However, for many others, it is not a matter of necessity nor is it really practical. A sizable
number of the persons who buy automobiles do so, not because they need a car, but for a variety of other reasons. They may
desire to own an automobile for pleasure driving, for prestige, because others have one, for the feel of power it gives them, or for other assorted reasons. Many of these can afford an automobile without any hardship to their budget.
But the question of owning a car is particularly appropriate for millions of persons who live in the larger cities of all industrialized nations and who do not have a high income. Many of these persons feel there will be certain advantages to owning one, such as being able to drive to work instead of taking public transportation, or having it available for pleasure driving in the evening, on a weekend or perhaps on vacation. Even though they do not need a car, nor do they have a substantial income, they contemplate purchasing one. Or if they own one already, they feel they must keep it.
Many Things to Consider
To determine whether you should own an automobile or not if it is not a necessity and you have only a modest income, many things must be taken into consideration.
For instance, how much use will it get? Will you use it enough to justify the cost? Or will it be used only occasionally in the evening or on a weekend once in a while?
Another point to consider is the availability of public transportation. How good are the facilities for bus or rail travel? In some cities subway and bus systems can take a person for miles quite cheaply
bile? Whether they realize it or not they spend almost as much on the car as they do for food, approximately 15 to 20 percent of their income. Only housing (including utilities) takes more of the budget than these items—about 30 percent.
This means that on these three items alone—food, automobile, and housing—many families account for about 70 percent of their income. The 30 percent left will have to be stretched to cover taxes
True, the convenience may not always be equal to that of owning a car, but if mass transportation is always available and reasonable in cost, the potential or actual car owner of modest income would do well to weigh public transportation against car ownership.
This brings us to the real crux of the matter. For some with good incomes, the cost of a car can be absorbed and sustained easily. They may even pay for it in cash and maintain it with little strain on their adequate income. But for many,
medical costs, clothing, insurance, recreation, schooling, savings (if possible) and other items that come up each month. From this it can be seen that the cost of owning an automobile is roughly one-fifth or one-sixth of the total family budget-not cheap by any calculation.
Calculating the Cost
Just what does it cost to own a standard-sized, moderate-priced automobile? Prices vary in different countries, of course, but let us take the United States as an exam-
perhaps most others, that is, the average moderate wage earner, the cost of an automobile and its maintenance is the major factor in considering ownership.
What Part of the Budget?
Concerning the cost of an automobile for many wage earners, one financial expert stated: "It used to be considered a sign of affluence for a family to own several cars. Today it is more likely a sign of poverty." This expert means that the true cost of running automobiles keeps many families from being able to afford money
ple, since that country has the highest number of car owners.
The average price, in the United States, for a new standard, moderate-priced vehicle is about 3,000. Based on a ten-year ownership and driving about 10,000 miles a year, authorities calculate that it costs about1,100 each year to own the automobile. This cost includes depreciation, repairs and maintenance, oil and gas, and also other costs such as insurance, tires, accessories, taxes and tolls. Breaking down this cost into a monthly rate, we find that buying a $3,000 car would cost the
families from being able to spend money on more necessary items. Payments on automobiles continually sap their modest incomes so that they must live little better than poor people, except for having an automobile or two to show off.
How much of their gross income does the average family in the United States spend for the expenses of their autoomo-
owning a 3,000 car would cost the average family over90 a month.
However, this cost is calculated on the premise that the owner will keep the vehicle ten years, thus getting the most out of declining depreciation, for the car depreciates much less toward the end of the ten-year span than it does at the beginning. If the automobile is traded in after a few years, then costs go up.
For instance, if the car is traded in for a new one every three years, the total ownership cost for those three years would be about 4,500, an average of about1,500 a year. That is considerably higher than the yearly average of $1,100, based on ten-year ownership.
It is the depreciation, particularly, that makes the cost so high the first three years. Depreciation the first year may be approximately 30 percent, or about 900. The second year it may be 20 percent or less, somewhere between500 and 600. The third year it might be somewhat above 10 percent, perhaps300 to 400. The variation depends upon the make of the car, how far it has been driven, its condition, and also market conditions at the time. But, in any event, the first three years of depreciation will gobble up well over half, or, in some cases, approaching two-thirds of the3,000 purchase price.
The owning of a car is even more costly if the buyer is like the majority of lower-income persons who cannot afford to pay cash. The majority of car buyers make the purchase on credit, paying perhaps one-third down and the rest on monthly installments extending perhaps twenty-four to thirty-six months. Let us assume that on the new car priced at 3,000 the buyer pays one-third down (1,000) and has to finance the remaining 2,000. Taking out this loan will mean paying more for the car in the long run than just3,000. Why? Because of the interest, or financing charges. Even at the rather modest interest rate of 6 percent annually, a three-year loan of 2,000 would cost360. This must be added to the total cost. Thus, owning a car by way of the installment plan is more expensive.
Putting out more than a thousand dollars a year, on the average, for your own transportation is quite a sum if you are
a moderate wage earner. If your income is about $5,000 a year, it amounts to about 20 to 25 percent of what you make. Truly, for the moderate wage earner who does not really need a car, this is a luxurious outflow of cash.
Incidentally, there is another hidden item that can really be included in total costs, since you will not have it to spend. It is this: If you had kept the 3,000 in a bank and drawn interest, say the common 5 percent many banks in the United States offer today, you would have 150 extra dollars each year to spend. That150 alone would go a long way toward paying your public transportation costs during the year. In New York city many can get to work for forty cents a day, the round-trip cost of subway or bus fare at present. This comes to 2 a week for a five-day workweek. For fifty weeks a year, this cost would be100—less than the interest that would be accumulating on the $3,000 if it had been kept in the bank instead of buying that new car. For those who did not have the cash to begin with, if, instead of buying on credit, even part of the monthly payments had been put in the bank, this would have begun to build up capital and interest instead of being a severe drain on the limited family budget.
Hence, when we add up all that is involved, we can quickly see that owning a new car is a very expensive luxury indeed for those who do not have a high income. It can be seen now why the financial expert stated that, for many, car ownership is only proof that they are living like poor people, because they have to spend so much money on the automobile that they do not have enough left for other items.
Deciding
If an automobile is a necessity, you may not have much choice in deciding whether to own the vehicle or not. You may have to tighten your other expenditures in order to be able to afford the car.
However, even here it might be wise to investigate buying a car that is at least two years old, when the worst part of its depreciation will have passed. Then, too, for city use particularly, or for shorter distances, the small economy car is both easy to handle and low in expenses compared to standard models.
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